A Blog Post

JCE BLOG: Day 2 – Walking with elephants

It was another early start for the four Texans in Bali for a week. We had one thing on our agenda today: the Elephant Safari Park & Lodge.

The Elephant Safari and Lodge is home to 33 elephants.

“I want to hug an elephant, tell them a secret and kiss an elephant,” Ainsley told us during ourbreakfast.

A 50 minute drive dodging Balinese on scooters, stray dogs and tour buses got us to the massive safari park that’s home to 33 elephants in Bali.

The day trip to see the elephants began with a walk through a garden. Through the trees and garden we saw our first gimplse of the glorious animals.

We spotted our first elephant bathing while walking through the garden.

The closes any of us had been to an elephant was a zoo. So, it’s a bit startling to get so close to it. Especially one that’s bathing tossing water around before giving rides to their vistors.
The elephant didn’t seem to mind is taking selfies as it prepared for the day spaying water on itself.

The elephant didn’t mind as we took selfies.

‘Wow’ and nervous laughing was the only thing we could say as we passed by the garden into a pond filled with koi — as a herd of a elephants enjoyed one-on-one time with vistors.

As we got closer, we saw you could buy for 50,000 RDI a basket filled with fruit and vegetables for the elephant. They also had a giant trash can with sticks of sugar cane for free.

We brought two baskets and got close shots with the elephants.

Carson had a kick at feeding the elephants. We ended up giving them 3 treat baskets.

I marveled at their use of their trunks. It was their nose, arm and hand all in one. The elephants quickly ate everything we had in our two baskets.

They’d extend their trucks grab the treat with the top of the trunk and fold their trunks underneath them to put the food in their mouth. Seems like a long process but they had the moment down.

One of the elephants wore a flowe crown. How adorable! 🐘❤️

We snapped as many photos as we could before they realized we had no more food.

Ainsley didn’t have time to tell the elephant a secret!

Gigi and Tiamarie posing for us while in the water.

The elephant ride was the coolest part of the experience. We got to ride on Gigi, a 33 years old female. She had a bit of an attitude — as she walked us around her home.

The ride ended with a dip in their pond. And we got a great photo of Gigi blowing water out of her trunk.